Western Appeasement&Japanese Aggression

Question 1

By what year were the Soviet Union facing dangerous threats to its security?

Answer 1

1938

Question 2

What did Stalin know from secret intelligence reports from Germany in November 1937?

Answer 2

that Hitler had told his general to prepare for a war of aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland

Question 3

In what year did Japan launch a war of aggression in China?

Answer 3

1937

Question 4

Why by 1938 did Stalin begin to look else where for allies after he was informed by secret intelligence reports from Germany that Hitler had told his general to prepare for a war of aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland and that Japan had launched a war of aggression in China in 1937?

Answer 4

as the League of Nations proved toothless such as in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931

Question 5

What were the policies of France and Britain increasingly dominated by?

Answer 5

appeasement

Question 6

When did German forces invade Austria and impose the Anschluss which incorporated Austria into the German Reich?

Answer 6

March 1938

Question 7

What was the reaction of the West when German forces invaded Austria and imposed Anschluss which incorporated Austria into the German Reich?

Answer 7

France and Britain protested but took no action

Question 8

It was clear after the incorporation of Austria into the German Reich that Hitler would go fro Czechoslovakia next which the Franco-Soviet Pact of 1935 was created to guard against. However why was this not acted?

Answer 8

as for the Pact to be activated, France would first have to take action, which they did not following the Munich Conference in September 1938 which Russia and Czechoslovakia were excluded from.

Question 9

What year was the Munich Conference?

Answer 9

September 1938

Question 10

Who were involved in the Munich Conference in September 1938?

Answer 10

Italy, Germany, France and Britain

Question 11

What was appeasement?

Answer 11

this was a strategy used by the West in the 1930’s in response to Germany’s demands to revise the policies of the Treaty of Versailles. Relying on military alliances to enforce the post-war peace.

Question 12

After what was Stalin’s turning his back on the West and making a deal with Hitler apparent?

Answer 12

after his exclusion from the Munich Conference of September 1938

Question 13

Who wrote to President Roosevelt’s advisers that the exclusion of Russia from the Munich conference of September 1938 would cause them to ally with Hitler?

Answer 13

the US ambassador in Moscow

Question 14

Why was Japan a major concern for Stalin in the 1930’s?

Answer 14

as Japan’s military dictatorship had built up a powerful war machine

Question 15

Which 2 situations reflected how Japan was a major concern for Stalin?

Answer 15

• Captrue of Manchuria in 1931

- invasion of the rest of China in 1937

Question 16

What made the Japan threat more urgent?

Answer 16

the Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Germany in November 1936, and eventually Italy in 1937

Question 17

What was the Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Nazi Germany signed in November 1936?

Answer 17

this was an agreement to take joint action against ‘interference’ in their international affairs by the Comintern.

Question 18

When did Italy join the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and Nazi Germany?

Answer 18

November 1937, one year later

Question 19

With the west, how was Stalins’ foreign policy inconsistent?

Answer 19

as it went from diplomatic isolation, to membership of the League of Nations in 1934, to a prospective alliance with Western powers, to total hostility against the west in 1939 to wartime allies.